The myctophid Diaphus garmani is recorded for the first time from Indian waters. Three specimens (54-59 mm standard length) were collected from deep sea shrimp trawlers off Quilon, southwest coast of India, between 80 -110 N and 740-760 E, at depths from 250 to 450 m

Akhilesh, K V

Bineesh, K K

Pillai, N G K

Sebastine, Manju

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109Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India (2010)First record of the Garman's lanternfish Diaphus garmaniJ. Mar. Biol. Ass. India, 52 (1) :  109 - 112, January - June 2010IntroductionLanternfish of the family Myctophidae are found inall the oceans, with 32 genera and 240 species (Nelson,2006). An important characteristic of myctophids is thepresence of luminescent organs called photophores alongthe ventral body surface and head. For speciesidentification, different patterns of photophores havebeen used along with meristic data. These fishes havespecies-specific diel vertical migration patterns(Watanabe et al., 1999). Like many other mesopelagicfishes, myctophids are an important constituent of thediet of commercially important oceanic fishes andmarine mammals (Jackson et al., 1998).Investigations on the myctophid fauna of thewestern and northern Arabian Sea were carried outby R/V Dr. Fridfjof Nansen during 1975-1981 and1983-84 (Gunnar et al., 1999). Studies on distributionand abundance of Myctophidae in the EEZ of Indiawere carried out by FORV Sagar Sampada during1985-1986 (Mini and James, 1990). About 55 speciesof myctophids are known from the Arabian Seaincluding its southern part of the Indian Ocean(Nafpaktitis, 1978). Karuppasamy et al., (2006)reported 27 species of myctophids from the IndianEEZ. Somvanshi et al. (2009) reported 5 species ofmyctophids from the southwest coast of India.Diaphus is the most speciose of the myctophidgenera, with 70–75 known species (Nafpaktitis etal., 1995). The members of this genus can be assignedFirst record of the Garman's lanternfish Diaphus garmani (Family:Myctophidae) from Indian waters*K. K. Bineesh, Manju Sebastine, K. V. Akhilesh and N. G. K. PillaiCentral Marine Fisheries Research Institute, P. B. No. 1603, Ernakulam North P. O., Cochin-682 018,Kerala, India. *E-mail: bineeshmarine@yahoo.comAbstractThe myctophid Diaphus garmani is recorded for the first time from Indian waters. Three specimens(54-59 mm standard length) were collected from deep sea shrimp trawlers off Quilon, southwest coastof India, between 80 -110 N and 740-760 E, at depths from 250 to 450 m.Keywords:  Diaphus garmani, first record, southwest coast of India, Myctophidaeto two distinct groups on the basis of the presenceor absence of a suborbital (So) luminous organ andan inner series of broad-based, forward-hooked teethon the posterior part of the premaxilla (Nafpaktitis,1978). Diaphus garmani is a small diaphid fish,which attains a maximum length of about 60 mm.Material and MethodsThree specimens of D. garmani (Fig. 1) werecollected in April 2009 from a commercial deep-seashrimp trawler which operated from 250 to 450 mdepth in the outer shelf of southwest coast of Indiabetween 80 N - 110 N and 740 E - 760 E. Identificationwas based on the luminous organs on the head,number of fin rays, gill rakers and morphometriccharacters (Nafpaktitis, 1978). Photophorenomenclature follows Hulley (1984). The specimensof D. garmani were deposited in the NationalBiodiversity Referral Museum, CMFRI, India underthe accession Number GB.27.1.5.25.Fig. 1. Diaphus garmani, 54 mm SLShort Communication110Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India (2010)K. K. BineeshResults and DiscussionDescription: Peculiar characters of this fishwhich makes it different from other species are theposition and size of Dorsonasal (Dn), Ventronasal(Vn) and Suprapectoral (PLO). Dn is small directedanterolaterally. Descriptive characters of the fishare:  origin of dorsal fin over base of ventral fin;origin of anal fin behind end of base of dorsal fin;base of adipose fin directly over end of base of analfin; PLO distinctly nearer to lateral line than to baseof pectoral fin; Supraventral (VLO) midway betweenlateral line and base of ventral fin; SAO (Supraanalorgan) on a straight line, SAO2 slightly behind linethrough centers of supra anal (SAO1) and SAO3;SAO3 at lateral line; anterior anal (AOa1) abruptlyelevated, directly above AOa2; last AOa alsoelevated; posterolateral (Pol) in contact with lateralline; posterior anal (AOp1) over end of base of analfin; first three precaudal (Prc) evenly spaced, forminga gently arc; Prc3-Prc4 interspace enlarged with Prc4about 1.5 times its diameter below midlateral line;a vertically elongated, rough rectangular luminousscale at PLO.Table 1. Morphometric measurements and meristics of Diaphus garmani  Measurements Off Japan, 32 Sulu Sea, 6 South China Atlantic, 45 Present study,specimens specimens Sea, 1 specimens 3 specimens(25.5-53.0 (52.0-59.5 specimen (40.0 (27.5-48.0 (53.4-58.9mm SL)* mm SL)* mm SL)* mm SL)*  mm SL)Head length 26.5-30.7 26.2-28 27.9 27.6-30.4 27.8-31.3Head depth 21.6-25.0 22.3-23.4 23.7 21.4-24.2 22.5-24.5Eye diameter 6.9-8.7 6.9-7.6 7.5 6.9-8.8 7.0-7.4Upper jaw length 19.4-22.6 19.3-20.3 21.9 20.0-22.3 20.3-24.6Body depth 20.8-24.1 22.4-23.4 22.9 22.2-24.7 22.4-23.4Caudal depth 9.2-12.9 10.4-11.6 10.7 10.3-12.2 10.6-11.4Predorsal length 40.8-44.0 40.7-41.9 42.9 41.1-44.7 40.4-41.4Preventral length 40.4-44.7 39.1-44.1 42.4 39.8-44.9 39.7-43.7Prepectoral length 27.4-30.5 26.2-29.2 28.4 27.6-30.3 28.3-30.1Preanal length 59.3-63.3 59.9-64.6 59.6 59.1-63.1 60.1-61.7Preadipose length 76.2-80.2 77.2-80.5 79.8 77.8-81.8 79.2-80.7Upper jawlength/E.D 2.4-3.1 2.6-2.9 2.6 2.4-3.2 2.5-2.8H.D/ED 3.3-4.1 3.5-4.0 3.3 3.3-4.3 3.2-3.8Dorsal fin base length 17.7-21.2 17.3-20.4 20.4 18.8-22.4 19.2-20-8Anal fin base length 17.5-21.3 10.0-20.6 20.2 19.7-22.6 18.8-20.1Dorsal fin ray 14 (13-15) 15 (14-16) 15 15 (14-16) 15Anal fin ray 15 (14-17) 15 (14-16) 15 16 (15-17) 15Pectoral fin ray 12 (11-12) 11-12 11 12 (11-12) 12Gill rakers on first arch 7 (6 or 8, 7+1+14rarely 5) + (13)=22(21) 7+1+13=21 7 (6 - 8)+ 7+1+14=221+13-14 5 (4-6very(rarely 12) = rarely 7)20-23 =12( 11-13,(rarely 18) very rarely 14)AO photophores 6-8+5-6 6-7+5-6= 6+6=12 7+4(rarely 4)=11-13 11, 12(rarely 14)Lateral line scales 37-38 37-38  38-39 38*Source, Kawaguchi and Shimizu (1978)111Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India (2010)First record of the Garman's lanternfish Diaphus garmaniMorphometric and meristic characteristics:Number of fin rays (all soft): dorsal - 15, pectoral-12, pelvic - 9, anal - 15 and caudal - 20. Gill rakerson first arch - 22 (8+14). Photophores were countedas follows: PVO – 2 (Subpectoral organ), PO – 4(Pectoral organs), VO – 3 (Ventral organs), SAO -3, AOa - 7, AOp - 4 and Prc - 4. Lateral line organs- 38. Morphometric measurements of the specimensare presented in Table 1.   Other morphometric andmeristic data of these specimens are similar to thosecollected from the Southeast Asian seas recorded byKawaguchi and Shimizu (1978).Other records of occurrence of the species includeEastern Atlantic: Canary Islands, off Senegal;Western Atlantic: west of 30°W between 36°N and10°S; Indo-West Pacific: off East Africa, ComoroIslands and west coast of Madagascar; off Japansouth of 40° N, southeast Asian seas, Australia andNew Zealand; Eastern Pacific: near Hawaii, and offAcapulco, Mexico and South China Sea; WesternIndian Ocean: between 16° S and 26° S and off SriLanka (Fig. 2) (Nafpaktitis, 1978; Dalpadado andGjosaeter, 1993, Froese and Pauly, 2007). Thespecimens reported here widen the knowndistribution of this species to the southwest coast ofIndia.perspicillatus,  D. aliciae,  D. lucidus,  D. phillipsi,D. signatus,  D. watasei (Karuppasamy et al., 2006),D. thiollieri (FAO, Smith and Heemstra.1986)AcknowledgementsWe are grateful to Dr. G. Syda Rao, Director,Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochifor the support. We are also grateful to Dr. V. N.Sanjeevan, Director, Centre for Marine LivingResources and Ecology and the Ministry of EarthSciences, India for providing funding support. Wealso express our thanks to Mr. Ravi, fishing masterof the trawler for providing the specimens.ReferencesDalpadado,  P. and J. Gjosaeter. 1993.  Lanternfishes(Myctophidae) in Sri Lankan Waters.  Asian Fisheries Society,9: 161 – 168.Jackson, G. D.,   J. F. McKinnon, C. Lalas, R. Ardern and N.G. Buxton. 1998.  Food spectrum of the deepwater squidMoroteuthis ingens (Cephalopoda: Onychoteuthidae) in NewZealand waters. Polar Biol., 20: 56 - 65.FAO. 1997. Review of the state of world fishery resources:marine fisheries. Marine Resources Service, FisheryResources Division.  FAO Fisheries Circular. No. 920. Rome,173 p.Froese, R. and D. Pauly. (Eds.). 2007. FishBase. World WideWeb electronic publication. www.fishbase.org., version (09/2009).Gunnar, S., G. Bianchi and T. Stromme. 1999. The Dr. FridtjofNansen Programme. 1975-1993. FAO Fish. Tech. Pap., No.391, 434 pp.Hulley, P. A. 1984. Myctophidae.  In: P. J. P. Whitehead, M.Hureau, J. Nielsen and J. Tortonese (Eds.) Fishes of theNorthwest Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Vol. 1, Paris, p.429 - 483.Karuppasamy, P. K., K. Balachandran, G. Simmy, S. Balu, P.Vimala and N. G. Menon. 2006.  A checklist of fishes collectedby IKMT from the DSL survey in the Indian EEZ of ArabianSea. Indian Hydrobiology, 9(2): 311 - 316.Kawaguchi, K. and H. Shimizu. 1978. Taxonomy and distributionof the lanternfishes, genus Diaphus (Pisces, Myctophidae)in the western Pacific, eastern Indian Ocean and the southeastAsian Seas. Bulletin of the Oceanographic Research Institute,University of Tokyo 10: 1 - 145.Mini R. and P. S. B. R. James. 1990. Distribution and abundanceof lanternfishes of the family Myctophidae in the EEZ onIndia. In: K. J. Mathew (Ed.) Proceedings of the secondworkshop on scientific results of FORV Sagar Sampada,Cochin, India, p. 285 - 290.Fig. 2. Map showing distribution records of DiaphusgarmaniDiaphus garmani is the tenth species of thegenus Diaphus to be recorded from the Indian watersafter D. problematicus, D. effulgens, D. fragilis,  D.112Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India (2010)K. K. Bineesh Nafpaktitis, B. G. 1978. Systematics and distribution oflanternfishes of the genera Lobianchia and Diaphus(Myctophidae) in the Indian Ocean. Natural History Museumof Los Angeles County Science Bulletin, 30: 1 - 92.Nafpaktitis, B. G., D. A. Robertson and J. R. Paxton. 1995. Fournew species of the lanternfish genus Diaphus (Myctophidae)from the Indo-Pacific. New Zealand J. Mar. Fresh., 29: 335- 344.Nelson, J. S. 2006. Fishes of the World, 4th edn. John Wiley andSons, New York, 601 pp.Smith, M.M and P.C. Heemstra.1986. (Ed). Smith’s Sea fishes.Newyork: Springer-Verlag. 1047 pp.Somvanshi, V. S., M. K. Sajeevan and J. Rajasekharan Nair.2009. Systematics, distribution and abundance of myctophidresources off the south west coast of India. In: E.Vivekanandan et. al., (Ed.) Book of Abstracts - MarineEcosystem Challenges and Opportunities. Marine BiologicalAssociation of India, p. 42 - 43.Watanabe, H., M. Moku, K. Kawaguchi, K. Ishimaru and A.Ohno. 1999. Diel vertical migrations of myctophid fishes(Family: Myctophidae) in the transitional waters of thewestern North Pacific. Fish. Oceanogr., 8: 115 - 127.Received : 11.03.10Accepted : 15.05.10

First record of the Garman's lanternfish Diaphus garmani (Family: Myctophidae) from Indian waters

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First record of the Garman's lanternfish Diaphus garmani (Family: Myctophidae) from Indian waters

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